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The Outer Worlds w/ All DLC free until 26 Dec 2023 4PM UTC
(store.epicgames.com)
A gaming community free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. Whether it's price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don't meet the system requirements, or just haven't had the time to keep up with the latest releases.
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And you can tell that by how much they complain(ed) about Itch, GoG, Desura, and other competitors, right?
Yup, EGS doesn't get a pass for sucking just because it's an underdog. The store experience sucks, the company behind it actively avoids supporting the Steam Deck (valid business reasons imo, but it still sucks), and they have stupid exclusives that just delay when I get to play games on my platform of choice.
EGS sucking doesn't make Steam good, it just means EGS sucks.
While GOG's client kinda sucks, it's better than EGS and their games are DRM-free. So I'll give them a pass on their client kinda sucking and not porting to my preferred platform, Linux. I'd just GOG in a heartbeat if they gave half as much attention to Linux as Steam (I don't want much, just officially endorse Heroic and/or port Galaxy).
I keep my fingers crossed that one day GoG Galaxy will be given a developer or two instead of a single untrained monkey. I like the concept, I like some of the features and love that I can view all my libraries in one place, but man it's so janky and there's no support from the company at all and they don't fix issues or work on anything new for it and what they do add is done at a glacial pace.
Meanwhile, Valve keeps rolling out new features, such as:
Sometimes it's pretty stagnant, but overall it gets way more attention than any other client. All GOG needs to do is get like 5 full-time devs and Galaxy would be a much better client. They have the money (Witcher, Cyberpunk, etc), they just need to improve their client so people actually want to use it.
I think out of those only GoG can be called, by any stretch, a competitor
They sure do bitch about EA and Ubisoft having their own launcher!
Funny that the services you mentioned don't try to play in the exact same playground as Steam, contrary to EGS.
Those stores don't challenge the monopoly, so they don't trigger anyone. They get praised but you'll have a hard time finding anyone who regularly uses them, let alone as their main gaming platform.